Returning home to bury a loved one is never easy, but it can be life-changing in unexpected ways, writes Tumi Makgetla.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is investigating the cause of a helicopter crash that killed a pilot and his trainee in northern Johannesburg on Thursday morning. Spokesperson Phindiwe Gwebu said CAA investigators were at the scene of the crash, trying to piece together information.
Human bones found near the resort town of Umdloti following the heavy waves that hit the KwaZulu-Natal coast recently are in Pretoria for forensic testing, police said on Thursday. Some media reports have said the bones may be those of young girls who disappeared about 18 years ago, allegedly kidnapped by Gert van Rooyen and his lover, Joey Haarhoff.
Joseph Goebbels, head propagandist of Nazi Germany, opened his diary a frustrated homunculus on the evening of April 26 1942. His German mouthpieces were failing to understand their duty to convey the Führer’s truth with suitable zeal and, not without irritation, Goebbels had dispatched a handful of ”robust journalists” to occupied France to get the official story — and, more importantly, the official tone — right.
The first gay-themed chat show to appear in China debuted online on Thursday, with the host and guests discussing the challenges of being homosexual in the country’s conservative society. The first of 12 episodes appeared on the website of Hong Kong-based broadcaster Phoenix Television and three other sites.
The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) has not lived up to the expectations of the people of the country, its president, Letlapa Mphahlele, said on Thursday. Speaking in Johannesburg a day before the party’s 48th anniversary celebrations, Mphahlele said the PAC has in recent years fallen short of expectations.
The speaker of the Unitd States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, delivered a powerful challenge to the Bush administration’s stewardship of US interests in the Middle East by breaking with its policy of isolating Syria and holding talks in Damascus with President Bashar Assad.
Somali pirates are demanding 000 for the return of an Indian-flagged merchant ship and its crew, officials said on Thursday. The pirates, armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, seized the MV Nimatullah and its 14-member crew off the coast of Mogadishu early on Monday.
The rebel leader who has controlled the northern half of war-divided Côte d’Ivoire for four years took office as the country’s prime minister on Wednesday — the first step in a peace accord Ivorians hope will be their last. Charles Konan Banny, the outgoing prime minister, handed Soro documents symbolising the tasks left to be completed.
Eritrea has banned the life-threatening practice of female circumcision, the Eritrean Information Ministry said in a statement. Anyone who requests, incites or promotes female genital mutilation will be punished with a fine and imprisonment, said a government statement posted on the internet late on Wednesday.